


To Fit Well Together

by Leamas



Series: Skin Catalogue [2]
Category: A Perfect Spy - John le Carré
Genre: M/M, glad to see these two are using their time together well in that barn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 09:41:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9229085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leamas/pseuds/Leamas
Summary: Falling against Magnus came naturally, just as he supposed it felt natural for Magnus to wrap an arm around Axel’s waist and to press their bodies against each other, front-to-front. Again their eyes met. Magnus’ looked between Axel’s eyes and his lips.I could say anything, and Magnus would not be pulled from this moment. I could say something and make him smile, but he could not look at me like this if he were.[section 3 of Skin Catalogue: Extended Edition]





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vials](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vials/gifts).



> For [vials](http://archiveofourown.org/users/vials), who wanted to see the director's cut of this scene.

Axel watched as Magnus disappeared into the loft overhead. His hands wrapped around the bottom of the ladder to steady it, although only just – if Magnus fell there would be very little that Axel could do besides hope Magnus didn’t come crashing down on top of him.

“Is it clean, Sir Magnus?” Axel called after him. He watched the light move across the loft.

“Yes,” Magnus said. “Yes, yes it seems to be. Can you climb?”

“Of course I can.”

He almost reached for the bottle of vodka – what was left of it – but stopped; how silly, to think now that he would need it after how Magnus had looked at him before glancing over to the ladder and asking why they had never been up there before. And although Magnus had had some drink when he took Axel’s scarred hand in his and studied each mark before confessing that he couldn’t stand to part with Axel, he hadn’t needed it. It would be redundant to take it up with him now.

Axel tested the ladder with his hands, then a foot. It held steadier than while Magnus had climbed, both because Axel was light and because Magnus knelt at the top of the loft and did better to hold it still than Axel had. Axel heaved his leg behind him until he was within reaching distance from Magnus, then extended his arm to invite Magnus to take it. Magnus did, and hauled Axel by his slender wrist into the loft.

Towards the back of the loft was straw, the smell of stale, still air and rats, and the light Magnus brought up with him. There was a folded blanket within reaching distance of the straw, and Axel could not imagine how long it had sat there. They dropped beside each other with their legs dangling over the loft, with Magnus’ hand on his elbow.

“How long has it been since we sat in an attic together, Magnus?”

“I don’t know, Poppy,” Magnus said. “Years, perhaps. It was your room, I think.”

Axel had no desire to reminisce on their time together in Bern again – they had already been over it once, and they were here now, anyway, sitting so close that their shoulders touched, only a thin line separating their bodies. Peripherally Axel saw Magnus curl and uncurl his fingers against his own leg, and he watched as his own hand reached out to take Magnus’ wide palm and move it to his own thigh.

It was the prompt Magnus had been waiting for. He pushed their hands behind them against the floor and leaned them away from the edge. His other hand reached up to touch the side of Axel’s face, his knuckles moved against Axel’s face with such warmth that he shivered. Axel reached to run a hand through Magnus’ hair, but before he could do anything else Magnus pulled away and was standing. His palm landed on Axel’s shoulder at the same time as he rose to his feet, and then with one hand under each of Axel’s arm he pulled Axel up.

Falling against Magnus came naturally, just as he supposed it felt natural for Magnus to wrap an arm around Axel’s waist and to press their bodies against each other, front-to-front. Again their eyes met. Magnus’ looked between Axel’s eyes and his lips. _I could say anything, and Magnus would not be pulled from this moment. I could say something and make him smile, but he could not look at me like this if he were._

Magnus wrapped an arm around Axel’s back and guided him down against the hay. Axel threw an arm around Magnus’ shoulder and held tightly to Magnus as he eased himself over Axel. He felt too exposed, with only his clothing for cover – but why should he feel exposed? What part of him had Magnus not already seen? The tension in his shoulders lessened as he watched Magnus’ eyes trace the sharp angles of his face.

Axel took hold of Magnus’ sleeve. “People will ask why I have straw on my coat and in my hair. What should I tell them?”

Magnus was busy adjusting Axel’s coat and playing with the top few buttons. Axel shrugged out of it and stretched his arms out to the side. It was cute, how Magnus couldn’t quite decide what to do with his hands: first he touched Axel’s shoulder, then his collar bone, then he moved down to his chest. Magnus hummed– Axel thought it was a tune of some kind, but he didn’t know what.

When Magnus answered, he didn’t look at Axel. “Tell them you were with a beautiful woman. That she couldn’t wait, and she needed to have you now.”

Axel laughed. “I will tell them I was with a whore.”

“Would they believe you’d be with a whore in a barn?”

“Why wouldn’t I be with a whore in the barn?”

The light by the ladder lit his dark hair like a halo and cast shadows across his face. His cheeks were soft, and he kept touching Axel’s collar bone like he forgot where the rest of Axel’s body was and didn’t know how to find it.

Finally Axel took pity on him by grabbing Magnus’ hand and pushing it under his shirt. He shivered as Magnus stretched his fingers around Axel’s sides, reaching further up his side. The distance between them closed. Magnus was not looking at Axel, he realised, but past him – at his body, like a man would look at a door while not knowing what lay behind it. His face was soft, and his eyes gentle. Axel imagined burying his fingers in Magnus’ cheek and pulling it away, unburying something hard. He would meet no resistance if he tried. Instead Axel lay still as Magnus refamiliarized himself with Axel’s body, counting the ribs Axel knew pressed oddly outward but that he forgot about except at times like this. All of Magnus’ weight was settled over of Axel, who now found himself in a small space between Magnus and the loft. He felt every place where Magnus’ body touched him: Magnus’ hand on his ribs and his knee by Axel’s hip, his elbows brushing his stomach. Magnus’ knee slid between both of Axel’s, and Axel let him. It was all so horribly close, and Axel wanted closer.

Their faces inches from each other and Magnus’ breath was warm on his cheek. It was the only warm thing about him, apart from his eyes.

Axel tangled his fingers through his hair.

“Your hands are cold. Have you ever been warm once?”

“I don’t think so,” Magnus confessed.

Axel closed the distance between them. Magnus’ lips welcomed him, and for a long time they stayed that way. Gradually Axel became aware of his fingers threading through Magnus’ hair, and how Magnus’ chest rose and fell as he breathed.

When Magnus finally moved away it was with reluctance; he slowly pried his and Axel’s bodies apart, but kept his hand on Axel’s stomach. When he shivered this time it was not from the cold. Axel pulled him down for a second kiss.

His own hand reached for the button on his trousers – Magnus’ followed and finished fumbling with the button and zip, then hooked his fingers into the belt and pushed them down his thighs. Magnus’ knuckles brushed against the inside of Axel’s thigh and Axel shivered, momentarily warm and desperately tempted to lean into the touch, but grabbed his wrist first.

“No. Not yet.”

Magnus whispered in Axel’s ear, “Then when?”

“When I’m ready,” Axel murmured.

He arched his back and tried to move himself to a better position, turning over onto his right hip and pushing at his legs. He couldn’t close his legs and when he realised that his hips twitched – he wanted to push his hips harder against Magnus, but stopped himself.

Instead he settled Magnus’ cold palm on his waist and reached his own hand down to the buckle of Magnus’ pants, undoing his belt and unzipping him, then pushing open the tops of his trousers. Magnus was stronger, his hips wider. His stomach tensed when Axel ran his fingers between Magnus’ hips, and then lower. His bones didn’t feel twisted under his skin and if Axel pushed at his sides, his hand wouldn’t go through him. If Magnus finished over him and collapsed down on him, Axel would struggle to push him off. Axel scratched Magnus’ thighs, moving against his skin and then grasping Magnus through his shorts.

All of Magnus shivered like he had never been touched before.

“Axel,” Magnus said against the inside of Axel’s neck.

“Is that all you can think to say now?” he asked. He tilted his head back. “Are you calling out for me? Is that all you want to say?”

One of Magnus’ hands was moving up Axel’s side. The other followed the deep scar he received from a beating many years ago around his back, to his bony spine. Magnus leaned forward and touched his lips to Axel’s collar bone, breathing against his skin and warming Axel. He grabbed Magnus by the hair and pulled his mouth to his neck, holding him there. Then he reached down between them, taking hold of Magnus in one hand and using Magnus’ strained breathing on his neck to measure how fast to move his hands and how roughly to grab him. Every time Axel’s hands moved with long measured strokes, Magnus answered. He breathed against Axel and sighed into his neck, and his hands tightened and loosened and his nails bit cruelly at Axel’s skin. Axel couldn’t stand it, to have all of Magnus in his grasp and all of him surrounding him.

Magnus’ wrists found their way to Axel’s hands at the same time as he let out a harsh breath, Axel’s touch suddenly vanished.

“Now,” Axel whispered, his voice hoarse. He didn’t think he could speak clearly anymore, but he said again, “Touch me right now.”

He looked down as Magnus crawled downward, his own hands fumbling with Axel’s clothes with an awkwardness he never had when he handled the rest of Axel’s body. There was nothing gentle about how Magnus touched him. He had no further plan with where he was taking it.

Axel propped himself up on one elbow. With the other he took a fistful of Magnus’ hair. He didn’t have to say anything else; Magnus’ hand steadied immediately, and now that he was aware of Axel touching him elsewhere his grip eased. His pace slowed, agonisingly. He didn’t break his rhythm even when Axel pushed his hips up, or when he grabbed Magnus’ wrist. The back of Axel’s neck was far too warm, his forehead slick with sweat. He was very aware of how close he was to making a sound, if not for his lips pressing hard together.

Magnus’ eyes never moved away from where they’d made themselves comfortable on Axel’s face; he was still watching when Axel finished and gasped under Magnus.

He collapsed back onto his coat. The straw still stuck to his hair and the cold air tickled his skin.

Magnus didn’t stop, although his touch was lighter now. In return Axel kept his hand wrapped more tightly through Mangus’ hair, not least because he couldn’t help it. He tensed and tried to curl his body to the side, away from Magnus, but Magnus was stronger. His touched stayed even, and for a moment Axel thought he could cry.

“Magnus,” he gasped, but couldn’t say anything else. “ _Magnus_.”

Finally Magnus stopped, but not before the backs of his knuckles traced the inside of Axel’s legs. Magnus still sat in the way and stopped him from pushing his knees together.

Axel led Magnus’ mouth to his and grabbed all of Magnus’ body in his arms and held on. He didn’t move until Magnus drew back for a full breath, and then only one hand let go of Magnus. It found its way between Magnus’ legs, skin against skin, and gripped him tightly. His hand felt far away, like it belonged to someone else even as he felt it move against Magnus, and as he felt Magnus’ breaths came in quick gasps and he tensed under Axel’s touch.

If Axel had not stopped earlier, Magnus would have finished within moments, but now with Axel’s slow and deliberate touch the seconds dragged on. Axel liked that: he liked Magnus’ breath hot against his neck, and the tiny whimpers that came from his throat. He liked how Magnus shook in his hands, and how he could surely feel that Magnus was shaking even if Magnus could not. He liked how Magnus breathed, and he liked that he held the power to finish Magnus in his hands. Axel gave Magnus another few rough strokes and Magnus finished, and Axel liked that, too.

He collapsed on top of Axel like a heavy weight that Axel could not dislodge. Axel didn’t care; a moment later Magnus moved beside him, so their faces were right beside each other. Axel turned his face against Magnus’ neck and sighed, pleased with himself as Magnus sighed contentedly in their small circle of warmth.


End file.
